Pa. lottery bid extended

The Corbett administration has agreed on the extension of a British company’s winning bid on the Pennsylvania Lottery. The bid was set to expire Saturday afternoon. Negotiators were reportedly “bleary-eyed” as they worked to postpone the decision deadline on the deal through this Friday.

A state Revenue Department spokeswoman says extending the bid allows the administration more time to consider its response to the rejection of the contract with Camelot Global Services by the state attorney general.

Attorney general, Kathleen Kane announced the contract with Camelot failed a routine legality review because it violates both the state constitution and state law.

Without a bid extension, there would be no penalties, but Camelot would have gotten back its 50 million dollar bid security.

Franklin and Marshall pollster Terry Madonna says the lottery privatization deal isn’t dead yet. The governor could appeal the attorney general’s decision in Commonwealth Court or ask the Legislature to put into law the same things he tried to authorize with the lottery contract.

Madonna says the message will be clear if the attorney general’s decision is upheld: You can privatize but you have to do it in a different way. In this case, get the Legislature to do the privatization, just as the governor has asked the Legislature to privatize the liquor store operations.